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28 degrees

Damage from frost was slight in this garden. Caladiums and heliotrope shriveled in the cold (as the gardener should expect when these are left outdoors), but there was little injury to flowers of azaleas and hydrangeas. The freeze the next night was a different matter.

Flowers on mophead hydrangeas were brown along the edges after a night of frost, but turned almost completely brown at 28 degrees. There are more buds that will probably bloom in milder temperatures.

Flowers of Encore azaleas wilted, and blue hydrangeas (above) turned brown in twenty-eight degree overnight temperatures. Both have buds that are likely to flower in milder temperatures that are forecast, and I would not be surprised to see a few azalea blooms next week.

Toad lilies did not wilt in the freeze. I expected that flowers and foliage would fade, but only a few toad lilies show any ill effect.

Surprisingly, toad lilies (Tricyrtis, above) and asters (Aster tataricus ‘Jindai’, below) show no evidence of the cold, and this afternoon the aster was swarming with butterflies (moths?) and bees. Curiously, most often I see abundant bumblebees on the asters in early autumn, but today there were none.

Jindai aster tolerates early freezes every autumn. This tall aster is often the last perennial standing, and it is regularly visited by bees and butterflies.

I read today that an El Nino weather pattern will bring mild temperatures for the next month, and after two miserably cold winters I would not be bothered if this pattern remained until March.